Ad Tech Firm BlackArrow Acquired By Local TV Ad Company

Cross MediaWorks, a company that sells local TV ads, said it has acquired BlackArrow, an ad tech firm that allows media companies to dynamically insert relevant and targeted ads into video content that appears in video-on-demand programming and streaming TV.

Cross Media partners with pay TV providers through its Cadent Network unit to help them sell their local TV ad inventory and offers advertisers so-called “addressable ads” that are tailored to a household or zip code. This deal has the potential to give Cross Media the ability to layer on VOD and other ad inventory into its ad packages, making it easier for advertisers to buy more targeted ads.

BlackArrow, which works with a long list of cable operators, has raised roughly $65 million from investors such as Cisco Systems, Comcast Ventures, Intel Capital and Google.

The deal, which includes cash and stock, is valued between $90 million to $120 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.

This agreement “will help [pay TV providers] maximize revenue from their TV inventory across linear TV, VOD and OTT platforms,” said Nick Troiano, Black Arrow’s chief executive, who will become chief executive of Cross Media.

As digital advertising steals dollars from the television business, media companies view their video-on-demand services as a promising area of growth. Fast-forwarding can be disabled so users must watch ads. And dynamic ad insertion technology can make it more appealing to marketers, allowing them to swap out time-sensitive ads and replace them with new or more relevant commercials.

Advertisers have long been eager to run addressable ads. However, putting together an addressable ad buy can be a complicated and labor-intensive process, because to get enough scale a marketer must buy across multiple cable operators or satellite-TV service providers.

To make it easier, companies such as Cross Media and Visible World, which was recently bought by Comcast,have simplified the process by bundling inventory from different pay TV providers and selling it to marketers.